Marines and Navy sailors from the USS Bataan stand on the flight deck during their arrival for Fleet Week 2022 in New York. In the wake of the Supreme Court's historic term, some service members and veterans are speaking out. Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images hide caption
toggle caption Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images 
Marines and Navy sailors from the USS Bataan stand on the flight deck during their arrival for Fleet Week 2022 in New York. In the wake of the Supreme Court's historic term, some service members and veterans are speaking out.
Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images
For the first time in her life, Marine Corps Capt. Meleah Martin is refusing to wear American flag attire this Independence Day. Instead, she told her family that she will only wear pride colors and apparel. Not because she's unpatriotic – she's spent approximately 16 months deployed overseas as an F-18 pilot. But because she believes her constitutional rights are under attack.
Martin said it's been disheartening to witness liberties such as the right to protest or to cast a ballot come under attack in recent years. Those frustrations turned to devastation for her with the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, stripping away the constitutional right to an abortion. Martin hopes to someday start a family, but as someone who identifies as a lesbian, she's scared her right to marry and have children may also be in danger.
Sponsor MessageAs a result of these fears and frustrations, she said she doesn't look at the American flag the way she used to.
"We swear an oath, 'To support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic' . Well, it's time to start worrying about the domestic, because clearly we have more of a problem here than we do anywhere else," Martin said, noting that her views are her own, and not a reflection of her unit or the Marine Corps. "It's really disappointing when something like this happens, because, like, how do I defend that?"
And she's not alone.
The American military and its more than 1 million active-duty troops is traditionally seen as apolitical. But in the wake of a historic Supreme Court term that has shifted the nation to the right on everything from the Second Amendment and abortion, to the separation of church and state, service members and veterans on both sides of the political divide are finding it increasingly difficult to remain quiet.
For some, the shifts brought on by the court are cause for celebration. For others, their sentiments amount to a loss of trust and confidence in political leaders, and growing frustration with the country they are sworn to defend.
